1.24.2010

Contestant #3

Jennilyn:

Grandma made gorgeous fancy whole-cloth quilts that we would play tent under, watching the needles poke down and looking for “spaghetti” knots or loose threads. It seemed like every time she tried to teach me I would prick my finger and bleed everywhere, but “NOT ON THE QUILT!” said with a loud Scottish accent. When I was 9, I made my first solo quilt with a no-batting 8" x 10" rectangle with humble squares raw edged appliquéd in crooked rows using my mom's old knee-lever pedal Singer. I was trying to copy that pioneer look I loved from "Little House on the Prairie."

I am the oldest of nine, so younger siblings were gifted with flannel blankets we tied with embroidery stitch "crows-foot," my mom’s favorite stitch. In high school I sold tie-dyed sheet whole-cloth quilts and crazy-jean quilts to other waitresses I worked with. Then, five years, a mission to Belgium and marriage later, a BYU friend taught me how to piece blocks (Georgia Bonsteel was our book friend) when I was expecting baby number one and nesting. My husband bought me the best machine we could afford as starving students. I was an art major and quickly learned that fabric was a safer medium to work with as a mom. Kids can’t eat oil paints, but fabric was okay for them to muss. Fabric became my artistic outlet, my sanity-saver, my favorite collection, my hobby, my life. I would introduce myself as a quilter, even if the actual quilting part isn’t my favorite.

Twenty years and five kids later I still love piecing and color! No grand-kids yet, but every new baby in the neighborhood and at church gets a quilt from me. And really, really good friends or sibling wedding gifts rate a queen-size! My weaknesses as a quilter are bindings and hand-stitching. Give me color and pattern and the machine!

I am a past VP and president of our local 204-member strong quilt guild and currently quilt with a small group called “The WILD Threads.”

http://orangeismyfavoritecolormostdays.blogspot.com/

"Credendo Vides; by believing, one sees." -- James C. Christensen, 'Voyage of the Basset'